


Greetings from Mountaintops

by RanMouri82



Series: SnippetTales [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-07-12 04:52:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7086259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RanMouri82/pseuds/RanMouri82
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frisk had a special reason for climbing Mt. Ebott.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Greetings from Mountaintops

"..."

"I am sorry, child," Toriel said from her seat at the foot of Frisk's twin bed. She had pulled the covers just-so up to their chin, like usual, but instead of tucking them in 'snug as a snail', she had asked the child something that had lingered on her mind since leaving the underground. "Was that too sensitive a question?"

Humming a moment, Frisk grunted and wiggled their little body into a sitting position. "Nope."

Toriel gave Frisk a smile and turned on their bedside lamp to its dimmest setting, filling the cozy room with hushed, golden light. It mingled with the pale moonlight that shone through the purple window curtains. "Then, would you like to tell me about it? The reason you went to Mt. Ebott?"

Frisk nodded but blushed a faint pink. "It's kind of silly, though."

"I see," Toriel said, tapping her furry chin in thought. "How about this? I'll try to figure out the story to help you along."

Perking up at that, Frisk asked, "Like a puzzle?"

"Yes!" Toriel replied, glad to see the child prop up their large, fluffy pillow and relax against it. Edging closer to Frisk, she closed her eyes and thought. "Let's see. You've mentioned living in an orphanage, but did you ever have foster parents?" When Toriel opened her eyes, she was happily surprised when Frisk clapped their hands and nodded with excitement. "Ah, and you liked them a lot."

"Yup! Uncle Joe and Aunt Jane were the coolest," Frisk said, flinging their arms wide. "They loved to research and explore. We went climbing up all sorts of mountains together, but they said Mt. Ebott was too dangerous. They even knew about the monsters. People laughed at them for believing you all lived underground, but they swore it was true."

Toriel paused, guessing the next part might be painful. "But then, they went away?"

Looking down, Frisk nodded and tugged their mouth into the slightest frown. "Yeah. A special team invited them to go to Mt. Everest and live with the Sherpas."

Though Toriel had no idea who Sherpas were—other than the top addition to her To Do list of human research—she nodded, anyway.

"They weren't going to go because of me," Frisk said, pointing their toes together and poking them beneath the comforter, "but I really wanted them to go. They always said climbing Mt. Everest was their dream. I didn't want them to give that up. So I said I missed the orphanage and wanted to go back."

Giving them a gentle smile, Toriel said, "That was a lie, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I lied," Frisk said, falling back on their pillow with a sigh. "It was worse when I got back there because nobody knew me anymore. Some of the bigger kids were mean, too. But!" they cried, jumping up so fast that Toriel clutched her chest in fright, "They teased me about Mt. Ebott and said I was lying about the monsters, so I said I'd go and be the one to come back. And I did!"

"Yes, child," Toriel said, patting Frisk's head and chuckling, "you did."

Frisk paused, blushing harder. "But that's not the real reason I went. It was silly, but I thought maybe, if I could climb a mountain as dangerous as that..."

Toriel gazed at Frisk fondly. "You could go live with your Uncle Joe and Aunt Jane?"

Frisk nodded, silent.

Pulling the child into a hug as they crawled onto her lap, Toriel said, "That is not a silly reason at all."

"Guess not," Frisk mumbled, as sleepiness weighed on their eyelids, "but living with you is even better."

As Frisk began to doze in her arms, Toriel whispered, "Well, aren't I the lucky one?"

Several days later, on a warm afternoon drenched with sunshine, Toriel peeked through a living room window into the yard. She had a special surprise in store for Frisk that both thrilled her and filled her to the brim with anxiety.

Not finding the child, Toriel opened the front door of the house. The brilliant blue sky made the treetops glow, so Toriel raised her hand to shield her eyes. She could have sworn Frisk was playing out here—

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Toriel experienced the closest thing a monster could have to a heart attack as Frisk sailed through the air toward her in a wide arc, landed face-down in the grass, and skidded across the lawn to her feet. A brown, oblong ball bounced out from between Frisk's chubby palms, apparently cushioning their fall, but that was small comfort to Toriel as she scooped Frisk up and quickly scanned for injuries.

She groaned. Their lips were scraped and their nose was bloody, but not broken. "What on earth happened?!"

"Oh! I was teaching Papyrus football," Frisk said, spitting out dirt as Toriel examined their teeth. "He got confused."

Papyrus came running toward them as they spoke and, with a cheery smile, said, "Did I 'go long'?"

"Oh, you are about to fly, young man!" Toriel scolded, leaping to her feet and shaking her finger at the tall, cringing skeleton. Taking Frisk by the hand and leading them indoors, Toriel glared at Papyrus and said, "We have errands to attend to now, but I will deal with you later."

If a skeleton could gulp, Papyrus did.

Closing the door behind them to leave Papyrus shivering with fright, Toriel guided Frisk toward a laptop computer. It was a large, heavy model that Toriel kept on a wooden desk against a wall. Leaving Frisk's questioning glance unanswered, she typed, "We will return in a minute!".

Toriel still needed to get the hang of internet shorthand.

"Come! We must hurry!" Toriel cried, dashing into the first floor bathroom with Frisk in tow. The goat monster flew into action cleaning, disinfecting, healing, and bandaging as much of her child as possible in the space of a minute.

Suddenly, several loud bells dinged from the computer in the next room.

"Ah, please wait!" Toriel said out loud to nobody.

Frisk pouted, then winced from the pain of pouting and said, "Mom, what's going—aah!"

The pair stumbled through the narrow, carpeted hallway back into the living room. Pulling a large, mesh swivel chair from under the desk, Toriel sat, took a breath, and smiled at Frisk. Patting her lap, she said, "We have special guests waiting for us!"

Tilting their head in confusion, nevertheless Frisk shrugged and sat on Toriel's lap as Toriel took the laptop's attached mouse. The cursor floated over several windows on the screen and highlighted an open application: FaceTime.

Toriel clicked a small movie camera icon and sighed with relief. "Ah, here we are!"

"Huh?" Frisk squinted as the screen came alive with a video feed.

"Greetings!" Toriel cried, waving at the laptop's tiny, embedded webcam.

A man and woman crowded into view. They both wore thermals beneath buttoned, wool shirts and sat knee-to-knee in a simple, cluttered office. The man gave a toothy grin that was all the bigger thanks to his large, square chin, and the tiny woman, her red hair in a sloppy bun, waved back and sparkled her bright, blue eyes at the camera.

Frisk gasped and leaped forward into a kneeling position on Toriel's lap, their ecstatic shout muffling Toriel's grunt of pain. "Uncle Joe! Aunt Jane!"

"Yikes, kid, what'd you do to yourself this time—ow!" Joe winced and rubbed the spot where Jane had elbowed him in the ribs. Glancing sidelong, he mumbled, "Sheesh, calm down, hot stuff."

"Huh? Oh!" Frisk dabbed at their nose and spotted a fresh trickle of blood.

"Eek!" Toriel yelped, blushing and straining to grab a tissue from a nearby box and pinch Frisk's nose with it.

"Fubbahl aksident," Frisk said, through their new tissue muzzle.

Jane rolled her eyes at Joe, but then giggled and gazed at the screen with fondness. "Same old Frisk."

"Now hold still, child," Toriel said, handing Frisk an extra tissue while they squirmed with excitement. She grimaced at the couple and said, "The culprit was one of their many friends from the underground who somehow failed to realize that a human is not a football." Sighing with a warm smile, she nudged Frisk and said, "I told them all about your adventures in the monster kingdom."

"We were worried sick when the orphanage started giving us the runaround," grumbled Joe, crossing his arms. "Your mom there had perfect timing, since we were about to fly back to get straight answers."

"Oh!" Jane's eyes shone with pride as she clasped her cheeks and sniffled. "You've gotten so big!"

Frisk stared blandly, still dabbing at their bloody nose. "It's only been a month. How could I be bigger?"

"We've been here a month, too," said Joe, easing back in his dented metal chair. "Whenever you go on an adventure, the world feels a bit smaller, right?"

Frisk nodded.

"Well," Jane said, glancing up at Joe with a smile, "that's because the experience made you grow. And Frisk, after everything, you're still you. Just bigger."

Beaming at that, Frisk nodded again.

As the couple and Frisk took turns peppering each other with questions, Toriel fell silent, grateful beyond words that Alphys had taught her how to use this technology. But even more, it warmed her worn soul to see this loving family reunite. All four of them had a simple hope to see each other live their dreams. And those dreams came true.


End file.
